All photos by Lotte Grønkjær. Used with Creative Commons permission.
Photographing flowers is a common and popular route through which many of us get started in photography, and it’s easy to see why. With their unique, delicate, and timeless beauty, they make perfect subjects for exploring a variety of genres such as macro, nature, and fine art photography. With her stunning work, Copenhagen-based Lotte Grønkjær sets a good example for those who want to elevate photographing flowers. Clean, minimalist, and distraction-free, her work emphasizes the elegance of her chosen flowers.
To achieve this, Grønkjær gives her flower photography the studio treatment, setting them against plain white or black backgrounds to draw the viewer’s full attention to their delicate features. She also utilizes skillful lighting to produce a certain mood and aesthetic, which in turn lends a dramatic look to her monochrome snaps. When she does shoot in color, the dainty hues add an extra dimension to the beauty she captures.
It’s also interesting to note how Grønkjær’s style in many of her black and white snaps look like hyperrealistic pencil sketches of flowers, stunning in their simplicity while also incredibly detailed. Some of her color photos also highlight the fragility of her flowers: the petals appearing to have been made using thin sheets of colored paper.
Looking around for any info about Grønkjær and her work, we stumbled upon her Flickr bio. From there, we learned she has been shooting with several Nikon cameras, and prefers to shoot in manual mode most of the time. “I have learned that the automated programs are not always good enough,” she mused.
What you see here is just a handful of her artful flower photography, so we suggest checking out Lotte Grønkjær’s Behance portfolio to see more of her work.